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MEDICAL REPORT FEE ON FAC RENEWAL


peek-at
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Hi,

I have just received a call from my local GP's surgery asking for £40 in order to reply to a medical info request by Northumbria Police Firearms Licensing.

Wasn't happy paying this without looking into it and after a bit of GOOGLING found that the request made to GP's by Police only needs to be replied to IF the GP has concerns over the patients mental health. If there are no such concerns the GP does not need to reply, and the Police continue to process the renewal after giving the GP 21 days to raise any concerns. This ties in with a comment made by my FLO when they said that they would give the surgery 3 weeks to reply.

I have now informed my surgery of this and of my intention NOT to pay their fee.

Just wanted to raise the issue so that noone just goes ahead to pay this medical report fee to their GP if they have never had any mental health issues.

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The BASC say Cheshire Constabulary, Gwent Police, Kent Police, Lincolnshire Police, Merseyside Police and Nottinghamshire Police are making it mandatory for anyone applying for the grant or renewal of a shotgun or firearm certificate to have their medical declaration information verified by their GP - which would suggest that if you live in these area you may well be liable for this extra fee

 

Have since had a conversation with my FLO who was fully aware of the situation regarding these medical fees and confirmed that it was up to me whether I wished to pay it or not, but if they received no reply from my surgery after 21 days they would make their decision based on the info they already held...... (and my licence would be in the post shortly after that)

 

 

Edited by peek-at
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1 hour ago, peek-at said:

Just wanted to raise the issue so that no one just goes ahead to pay this medical report fee to their GP

Quite right - there have been several threads around this issue; I recently recounted my experience in the thread called "Shotgun Cert Renewal" in this same forum.  Follow BASC's advice and if you have problems, get them involved.

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It is not mandatory by Gwent police as i have just renewed mine and my mate is is in the process of doing his and neither of us has been asked for doctors report yet another mate has been asked so mandatory it isn't and why are BASC telling people this when it is a lie  

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1 hour ago, Rim Fire said:

It is not mandatory by Gwent police as i have just renewed mine and my mate is is in the process of doing his and neither of us has been asked for doctors report yet another mate has been asked so mandatory it isn't and why are BASC telling people this when it is a lie  

The medical request goes to your GP surgery and they may do it free, or as in other cases the GP may ask you to pay...

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My lad is in the process of applying for a shotgun certificate and has just received a letter from our local surgery asking for a £15 fee to do letter. He has been and paid it tonight. I didn’t know if it’s for new applicants as when I renewed mine a year or so a go I never had to do it. We are in Gloucestershire.

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I think your lad has wasted his £15. There isn't anything in legislation forcing applicants to pay these surgery fees which in themselves are not standardised or agreed with firearms licensing authorities. This is why police forces  like mine are giving 21 days to allow a GP to raise any concerns before processing  the application anyway.

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1 hour ago, peek-at said:

I think your lad has wasted his £15. There isn't anything in legislation forcing applicants to pay these surgery fees which in themselves are not standardised or agreed with firearms licensing authorities. This is why police forces  like mine are giving 21 days to allow a GP to raise any concerns before processing  the application anyway.

Yes, but some forces are insisting on a doctors report at the expense of the applicant, if they have any conditions or not, for both grant and renewal. So no doctors report no certs.

And yes it isn't in the guidelines, but it is happening.

Edited by Newbie to this
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As I understand it there was a review of firearm licensing involving all stakeholders which reached agreement (it subsequently became Home Office Guidance) which says that the police should, after 21 days, if no reply from GP, assume all was ok and process the application..........there was never any agreement for GP's to charge for this initial enquiry.......some GP's reneged on the agreement and started charging applicants......some police forces decided to impose their own rules outside the agreed Home office guidance saying....no doctors report ( which GP's want paying for) no certificate...........and here we are! Chaos!......the Home Office apparantly, have now backtracked on the agreement, and their own guidance, by not pulling the police back into line!

If you are a member BASC (or other shooting organisation you belong to?) should be able to advise, but if you are asked by your GP to pay ...Don't!.............But if told by the police "no GP's report, no certificate" you may have to think again?

It's about time this mess was properly sorted once and for all!

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18 minutes ago, panoma1 said:

As I understand it there was a review of firearm licensing involving all stakeholders which reached agreement (it subsequently became Home Office Guidance) which says that the police should, after 21 days, if no reply from GP, assume all was ok and process the application..........there was never any agreement for GP's to charge for this initial enquiry.......some GP's reneged on the agreement and started charging applicants......some police forces decided to impose their own rules outside the agreed Home office guidance saying....no doctors report ( which GP's want paying for) no certificate...........and here we are! Chaos!......the Home Office apparantly, have now backtracked on the agreement, and their own guidance, by not pulling the police back into line!

If you are a member BASC (or other shooting organisation you belong to?) should be able to advise, but if you are asked by your GP to pay ...Don't!.............But if told by the police "no GP's report, no certificate" you may have to think again?

It's about time this mess was properly sorted once and for all!

Completely agree, maybe it time for and email to the home office to see what their official stance on this matter is.

Edited by Newbie to this
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This rule is so inconsistent up and down the country why can't a big organisation like BASC which Debbie proudly boasted about how many members they got.

Actually represent them members and do something about it even if all the organisations get together it so inconsistent unbelievable   

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47 minutes ago, Newbie to this said:

Completely agree, maybe it time for and email to the home office to see what their official stance on this matter is.

I personally don't think it would do any good, the HO (government) instead of making the agreement law, made it "guidance" which is apparently not enforceable if GP's and the police choose to ignore it..........which it seems some have!

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11 minutes ago, panoma1 said:

I personally don't think it would do any good, the HO (government) instead of making the agreement law, made it "guidance" which is apparently not enforceable if GP's and the police choose to ignore it..........which it seems some have!

You're probably right, but it won't hurt to send an email, just to see what their response will be if any.

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Unfortunately not every sgc holder is a member of an org. Over 500,000 certs and BASC covers 155,000, Cpsa is 24,000 and some of these will be dual members. Plus the 138,000 fac holders again some will be dual sgc and fac holders. 

Let's say there are 600,000 license holders in the uk. That's less than 1% of the population of more than 65,000,000.

Basically no one give a pile of excreta about us, because we aren't a joined up mass of voters. If everyone who handled a gun, from air to cf and shotgun joined 1 org we may have more of a voice. 

Till then?? 🙄

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That is true to a point but the ones that are members of these orgs are not getting represented by them so what are they paying good money for.

It seems to me they pick and choose their cases to fight. It might not bother them who seem to have money on their hip  but your average jo it make a difference 

  when there surgery ask for a hundred quid and the next bloke pays £20 at least get a consistent price to pay

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 02/02/2019 at 10:19, Newbie to this said:

Completely agree, maybe it time for and email to the home office to see what their official stance on this matter is.

I finally got a reply from the home office, it seems that the guidelines are going to become statutory, but the fee is still going to be a lottery.

Studio_20190301_140023.png.4c321ca71aca9f885e75c956b26cd66a.png

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30 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Good work NtT

What a damned shame all these guidelines are not fixed ways of doing things within proper laws, rather than someones interpretation of the guidelines that is so open to differing viewpoints.

^^^^ This. 

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On 02/02/2019 at 10:29, Rim Fire said:

This rule is so inconsistent up and down the country why can't a big organisation like BASC which Debbie proudly boasted about how many members they got.

Actually represent them members and do something about it even if all the organisations get together it so inconsistent unbelievable   

 

Beacuse the BASC support this action .... they want the GP's intervention and are not opposed to a charge.

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Those organisation subscriptions still worth it? Things seem to have gone very quiet regarding a 10 year ticket as a compromise. 

The NGO would like to hear from members in Scotland, Kent, Merseyside, Lincs, Cheshire and Notts licensing authorities where the applicant has been told they will not issue without a reply from the GP to the initial consultation letter, if those members would be interested in taking the matter further. What they can do, or what they claim they can do is anyones guess, but I wouldn't urge anyone to hold their breath. 

 

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Had something annoyingly happen to me regarding my GP. They asked for a fee for my medical report so I sent it in, they then said to pay when it's done. A day later the practice manager rung me up saying I'd have to pay before, I explained what had just happened and went back to pay the £30. One month on I get a call from my GP saying 'Your medical report wasn't done in the time allocated by Essex Police so we'll refund the medical report fee'.

In a month, the doctor who was allocated my report didn't have any free time to do a medical report for the police, absolute joke.

Police haven't been in-touch with me yet but the GP did say if they didn't reply to the police they'd take it as everything is okay to proceed. Which would of been ideal for the GP to tell me instead of requesting money. 

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